Lying for God

I really respect Tim Johnson's writing and enjoyed his book, when I saw this entry on his blog about missionaries in China, I took notice. Despite my own religious leanings, I'm totally against a large portion of the missionary work that goes on in China. Often the work is done under false pretenses or just outright lying and is really disappointing. I've known a few people who've gone over as missionaries, and while some of them are really good, honest people who did positive work while there, the majority of them, quite simply, are none of those things.

As Johnson points out, these groups often target minority and/or Muslim or Buddhist communities. What some of these US Christians are doing, as foreigners in another country, is utterly despicable. Imagine the battles that would erupt if Christians started hanging around synagogues and mosques and, on a daily basis, as people were walking out of worship these Christians would approach them, tell them they are living in sin and try handing them Christian literature. How would people view that? How long until the first riots began? Yet for whatever reason, some Christians believe it is okay to behave like this in other countries, I just don't get it. This is exhibit A in why the world hates Americans.

In his entry, Johnson states, "what’s interesting is that some of these Christians use denial and deception about what they are doing, employing 'tradecraft' more commonly associated with spying."

Is it just me or would it seem denial and deception run counter to Christian "values"? There are ways of spreading God's word that don't include these tactics, unfortunately it seems these groups will continue to get bolder and bolder until the government deports one or two of the most egregious offenders.